


Close my Eyes

by Harpokrates



Series: Little Lies [5]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bounty Hunter business, Destruction of Alderaan, Gen, Pre-Star Wars: A New Hope, Technically mid-ANH, The Force, the tiny barest beginnings of Luke/Boba
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-11
Updated: 2020-02-11
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:27:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22662463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Harpokrates/pseuds/Harpokrates
Summary: After their near escape from the Empire, Boba Fett and Luke Skywalker seek refuge on a starport. Meanwhile, the universe trembles under the threat of a new weapon.
Series: Little Lies [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1596328
Comments: 3
Kudos: 66





	Close my Eyes

Boba watched absently as Skywalker got the okay from flight control and brought the Slave 1 down for a landing. He was still slow and numb from the stun bolt he had taken but even if he was at his best, Skywalker still pulled off a smoother landing than Boba ever had.

"You're a natural," Boba said.

"Nothing natural about it." Skywalker set them down nice and easy. "Nothing to do in Anchorhead but race through canyons and fix droids."

Luke considered for a moment. "And get drunk, but I was too young and Uncle Owen would have killed me and used my corpse to decorate the vaporators."

"So you did anyways, right?"

"Ah, yeah."

"How old were you when Jabba took you?" Boba didn't expect Skywalker to answer—he was usually recaltractant about his life before Boba met him.

"Fifteen," Luke said, watching the landing pad clear, "it was after that big monsoon season. Water prices dropped and Uncle Owen wasn't making enough to keep food on the table. He had to borrow from the Hutts."

"Hm." Boba stood up stiffly. "We need fuel."

"And a new identity beacon." Luke held an arm out. Boba ignored it. "Those Imperials definitely put the ship on a wanted list."

"You seem more worried about the ship than yourself."

"What? Me?" Luke batted his eyes as they stepped into the lift. "Poor Luke Skywalker, held captive in the clutches of renowned bounty hunter and career criminal Boba Fett? As far as they know, some Stormtrooper broke you out."

The armor wasn't unimpressive, for something so mass produced. The Empire still used a modification of the armor dad originally designed for the GAR. 

"Some Stormtrooper. They'll review the security and wonder who hired the twelve year old."

"Yeah, well this twelve year old can outfly any of them, any day."

Fett exhaled. "Like to see you go up against a TIE fighter. It'd be funny for about ten seconds."

"I'd last at least fifteen."

The dock manager gave them a strange look as she set up the pressurized chamber to funnel hypermatter into the Slave 1.

"How much is the docking fee?" Luke crossed his arms behind his head.

"Two-hundred credits." It was more for an unlicensed pilot—bribes and all—but Boba had been using dad's license since he was eleven.

"Cheaper than the Imperial lot."

Boba groaned inwardly. The Imps had taken everything when they impounded the Slave 1—all of the cargo, the munitions. They probably would have taken his clothing, spare armor, and money if his quarters hadn't been securely locked. Unfortunately, they hadn't taken the droid.

Skywalker scribbled down a list on a piece of flimsi. Boba knew what was missing, but it was… useful to have another person around to confirm it.

Boba turned towards the downtown district. This planet reminded him a bit of Serreno, before the Empire made an example of it. It was densely populated, extremely old, and not fond of the Empire.

"I'll grab rations while you get your ammo." Skywalker said.

Boba grunted. "Don't get into trouble."

*I should be the one telling you that." Skywalker vanished into the crowd.

He was getting attached. Jango Fett had rules. Skywalker was an acquisition, hard merchandise waiting to be traded in for credits. But now he was Boba's savior.

Damn you dad, for your moral compass.

Contrary to popular belief, and the opinions of certain members of the bounty hunter's guild, Boba wasn't dishonorable criminal scum—he only worked for them.

Well, he was criminal scum now, according to the DataCore. If he were anyone else, he'd be terrified of every bounty hunter in the galaxy showing up to be the one who bagged the legendary Boba Fett, but he had Bossk on his side. The bounty would be snatched up and then tossed into the pile of the other five times he'd been arrested for his pre-Imperial record. Guild rules were useful sometimes, and Boba returned the favor for Bossk.

The only thing he had to worry about was an Infonet posting, and he'd been on there since he was ten and Jango Fett's weak point.

Boba put in an order for mines and a few ion cannon cores.

"Asteroid excavation," he said when the proprietor gave him a suspicious look. Then he added on a dozen sonic detonators and a magnet cluster bomb, just because they seemed interesting.

Dad had always been professional. You got in, you did the job. No feelings, no bribes, no skimming cash before you turned the bounty over. The target was a target. It didn't matter if you agreed with the charges or not. Jango Fett was an arm of the law—whatever passed for law in the kinds of places he took jobs. He wasn't judge, jury, or executioner, he was just a man hired to bring party A to point B, and he was the best in the entire galaxy.

Boba, on the other hand, was a poor copy, and he didn't even have planned obsolescence built in like all the others.

He was getting soft. He was lying, something Jango never did. Not to him, nor to anyone else. Jango's world was unconflicted—there were people to be hunted, and people who weren't. Sometimes the people who weren't helped him out, like Zam, but the job came first, always. Jango had no room for sentimentality.

Boba was sure he only existed as a holdover of Mandalorian habits. Had Dad loved him? Boba was sure of it. But…

He frowned. He was getting sentimental. Having another person around was making him soft.

As a child, he'd just accepted it, but as an adult he was often suspicious about the nature of dad and Zam's relationship. Friends, co-workers, something more? He really wasn't sure. He'd always liked Zam; she (they? it changed) was funny and tolerated young Boba.

Whatever. It didn't matter, because the second he figured out how, he was turning Skywalker in for the money. Jabba was offering something for him, but Boba was sure he'd put two and two together and probably had a bounty out for him too. Jabba didn't like thieves, unless he was the one doing the stealing.

He picked up some ABC scramblers too—hunting veermoks was his excuse for that. Dad had never been hesitant to switch up tactics with new weapons, although how much of that was the element of surprise and how much of that was dad's fondness for gimmicks, Boba wasn't sure.

He spotted Skywalker across the market square.

"Hey!" Skywalker waved him over. "I got food. They let me borrow a pallet to take it back to the ship."

"You could have just had it sent there."

"I couldn't remember the bay number." Luke rubbed the back of his head, sheepish.

Boba shook his head. "Three-ninty four. Let's go."

"Yeah yeah," Luke muttered, then grabbed the handle, heaving his weight against the pallet until it started rolling.

"How did you even get that over here?"

"Lots of effort," Luke grunted. Boba watched him for a few seconds, weighting just leaving him versus helping, before he grabbed the handle and helped Luke drag it along.

Luke's mouth twisted. "It's the armor."

"You tell yourself that."

By the time they got back to the Slave 1, Luke's hair was sweaty and his face was wrenched into a permanent glare.

"Have you gained any weight at all?" Boba asked. Luke was shaping up to be the first bounty he'd ever had who died of malnutrition.

Luke shrugged. "Maybe?"

"Stay still." Boba reached over and picked Luke up under the armpits, then put him down. "Fifty-seven kilos. You're nearly underweight. Start eating double rations."

Luke batted him away. "What? You can just tell?"

"There's a rutimenty scale built into the armor. It triggers pneumatic supports if I pick up something too heavy."

"Ha!" Skywalker jabbed a finger at him. "So it was your armor."

"Maybe."

"Whatever," Skywalker grabbed his bag off the pallet. More clothes, probably, and tea, caff, and candy. "Check it out." 

Luke pulled a model spaceship kit out of his bag. "It's an AIAT/i, from the Clone Wars."

Oh, that too. Collecting model starcraft seemed to be a hobby from before Luke was in Jabba's possession.

Boba nodded. "Amphibious landing. I knew someone who flew one of these."

Dad grumped about missing Jaster's Legacy, but Boba was content with the Slave 1.

"Really? What kind of speed does it have?"

"49 MGLT. It was fast in it’s day."

"It's only got sublight engines though," Luke tapped the image on the back of the box.

"You don't need a hyperdrive if you stay in one system."

"I guess." Luke shrugged, taking the box back and tucking it into his bag. He opened the bay door, and together they loaded the crates of rations into the ship. By the time the crates were magnetically sealed to the floor, Boba's munition order arrived. He squared everything with the delivery droid while Skywalker directed the loader to place the crates in the cargo hold.

"Did you really break one of the Stormtrooper's arms?"

"What?"

"I overheard some Stormtroopers gossiping. Apparently you broke someone's arm when they arrested you."

"Oh, yeah." Boba shrugged. No one on base had been old enough to recognize Jango's face at thirty-two.

"Seriously? With your bare hands? Through their armor?"

"Yeah. It's just a matter of angle. Didn't anyone ever teach you to fight ?"

Luke snorted. "Pft, no. Uncle Owen taught me to use a blaster—taking potshots at womprats is the other thing you can do on Tatooine. Fixer taught me to take a punch, but that wasn't really teaching, per say."

Boba considered for a moment. "C'mere."

He led Luke to an open space among the cargo. Luke's arms were crossed, and he had a hip jutted out.

"Seriously?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Seriously. Come here."

Skywalker rolled his eyes, but walked over to stand in front of Boba.

"Turn around." Boba twirled his finger.

Luke spun on his heels. "Okay? What—"

Boba wrenched his arm around Luke's throat, yanking him back off his feet. Luke's hand flew up to scrabble at Boba's forearm.

"First step: get your feet back on the ground," Boba leaned forwards a bit, "you can't do anything if you don't have a stable base."

Luke choked. "Asshole." 

"Get a firm grip on my arm and pull it down. Tuck your chin into the gap." Luke did as he was told and gasped for breath.

"What the hell is your problem?" Luke demanded, simultaneously trying to use his chin to keep Boba from throttling him, and looking back to glare at Boba.

"Teaching. Are your feet on the ground? Turn towards my shoulder—use your hips, and bow."

Luke hesitantly followed the instructions, and Boba let himself topple over, letting go of Skywalker in the process.

Skywalker massaged his throat. "I think I liked Fixer's lessons better."

Boba kipped up. "C'mon. Try again, but be faster this time. This doesn't work if your captor is expecting it."

Skywalker looked… well, on another person, it would be pissed, but Skywalker's chubby cheeks and big eyes just made him look like an angry lothcat.

"Fine." He spat, and the second Boba got his arm around his neck, he was on the floor. Boba blinked.

"You're a quick learner."

Preternaturally fast reaction times. Typical for Jedi. It was one of the things the Force did, aside from telekinesis and mental coercion. Skywalker could sense danger and react before it happened. Not all the time, Boba mused, pushing himself to his feet, only when he was angry.

"You should carry a blaster."

"Yeah?" Skywalker snapped, rubbing his neck.

"Did I hurt you?"

"No. You startled me."

Boba watched him for a few seconds. "I'm sorry." He offered.

Luke seemed to calm down. "Just don't grab me like that." He sighed. "Blaster?"

"You attract trouble. It might be good for you to have something other than a utility knife to defend yourself."

"I only attract trouble because I spend time around you."

"All the more reason to carry one."

"Why, Mr. Fett, it sounds like you want me around—" Skywalker couldn't finish the thought, snorting loudly and doubling over with laughter. Boba let out a few airy chuckles—a heheheh with less volume and more oxygen—while Luke tried and failed to get himself together no less than three times.

He gave up on standing and flopped down on the cargo bay floor, staring up at the ceiling and panting.

"It wasn't even funny." Luke grinned at Boba. "You're such a stick in the sand that you're eroding my sense of humor."

He stuck his hand out and Boba pulled him to his feet.

"Let's go to a cantina. I want a drink."

"I don't drink."

"You can watch me then."

Boba shrugged. "I need to check the Infonet."

"It's settled then."

They ended up at Boscoe's, a scummy place, but not a bounty hunter hive. This was the regular kind of scum—planetside hicks and spacers who carried stashes of spice under the floor panels. It stank like spilled beer and old sweat. The floor was sticky under Boba's boots.

"Watch yourself." He said to Skywalker.

Skywalker marched right up to the bar and tugged the bartender's sleeve until she turned around.

Boba turned away before he could see the fallout. There was a holonet console in the corner. He walked over and pulled the in progress access chit out of the interface and tossed it back to its owner, a short zabrak woman with a fang jutting out of her mouth. She snarled, but a prolonged silent stare made her reconsider and return to her seat, her crew trailing behind her.

Boba cleared the previous search—cheapest fuel prices enroute to Bespin—and logged onto the Infonet using his dad's information. He paid the login fee, wincing, then skimmed every bounty in the system and copied them to his armor's rudimentary data system. From there, it'd be transferred into the ancient data terminal in his quarters, where he could sort it and decide which bounty to pursue first.

He spotted an empty table in the back and sat down, absently watching the Limme game on one of the massive viewscreens.

"Here," Skywalker sat down, sliding a glass over to Boba, "I got you something."

"I told you I don't—" Boba looked at it. "Is this blue milk?"

"Yeah." Luke sipped at his. "My aunt makes it better."

Boba snorted and held his glass up to the light. Skywalker leaned forward.

"You gonna drink it?"

"Yeah." Boba shrugged, and pulled a straw out of one of his utility pockets and popped it in the glass. Skywalker's face fell.

"Seriously?"

"Seriously." It wasn't the worst blue milk he'd ever had. Boba nodded to the screen. "Galactic Cup."

Luke twisted his head. "Huh. I don't really follow sports. Well, Jabba liked podracing, so I know about that."

"Limmie is…" the one and only time Boba ever played, he kicked the ball off the side of Tipoca City, where it was immediately eaten by an aiwha, "fun."

"Something about the way you say that makes me doubt it."

"Well—"

"Everyone shut up!" The bartender shouted, clicking up the volume on the holoscreen. The Limme game fizzled out, along with every other screen, only to be replaced with an official Imperial Broadcast.

The camera was focused on an Imperial Officer, high ranking, if the badge on his chest had anything to say about it. He stared blankly at the camera.

"This is a public announcement on behalf of His Imperial Majesty Emperor Palpatine: it has come to light that the government and royal family of the Core world Alderaan were responsible for treasonous attacks against the Empire, under the guise of the so called Alliance to Restore the Republic, a known terrorist organization, with links to former Separatist leaders, responsible for the brutal Clone Wars, and to the treasonous Jedi Order."

He cleared his throat. "The leaders and inhabitants of Alderaan were responsible for a plot to murder His Imperial Majesty and destroy Courscant, killing it's inhabitants in the process. These were the actions of a cruel and monstrous regime. It is the Galactic Empire's grave duty to stop this threat to Galactic peace and security." A bead of sweat ran down the side of his face.

"Early Primeday, Alderaan was punished for this act of treason. Alderaan has been destroyed."

There was a collective gasp. Out of the corner of his eye, Boba saw Luke go pale.

"This is not an act of violence, but an act of protection. Alderaan is a violent planet—a harbor for criminals, pirates, and terrorists, who would gladly see this Empire and it's citizens destroyed. This is a pledge of protection to the Empire's loyal citizens: the Empire exists to protect you. This is also a warning to the enemies of the Empire: take no action against His Imperial Majesty or his beloved people, or the consequences shall be swift, and brutal."

The program cut off, and the viewscreen switched back to the Limme game.

"Destroyed?" Luke whispered. "How can they destroy an entire planet?"

The cantina picked up, and it picked up loud. One of the zabrak's crew was wailing, someone else was shouting, pointing fingers. He picked out a troop of off duty Stormtroopers in the corner, backs bristled and hands on their blasters.

"Let's go." 

"Right." Luke stumbled out after him. He kept staring back at the cantina, then up at the sky.

Boba's roughshod Holonet connection pinged as his Alderaan bounties were cancelled one by one. Princess Organa's increased to one million. The Imperial bounty was probably higher.

Flight control was shuttered, and even if they were responding to hails, Boba didn't want to take off. Launching after the news that an entire planet had been destroyed by the Empire was a bad move.

They stepped into Slave 1. The artificial lighting made Luke even more washed out. He was practically translucent.

"Are you alright?"

"I feel funny." Luke mumbled. Boba guided him up to his room and propped him on his cot. His thermals didn't indicate that he was feverish.

"You should get some sleep." Boba backed out of the room.

"It wasn't a broken rafter." Luke blurted out, then covered his mouth. Boba stilled.

"What?"

Luke looked down at his lap. "When Tosh died—the rafter wasn't broken. I—something happened. It felt like how this feels, like something's wrong. I guess… like the universe just twisted up."

Boba settled his weight against the doorway. Skywalker's model ships dangled from the ceiling. There was a tunic tossed half under his cot, and a pair of puttes trailing out of his trunk.

"An entire planet of people died. No one feels right." He said slowly.

"It's different." Luke insisted. "I know I sound like a brat—"

"You do."

"—but there's something like," Luke screwed his hand up in the middle of his shirt, "like a scream, and then it stops."

He rubbed his face. "I think I'm going crazy."

"I think you learned the Empire destroyed a planet." Boba sat down on the bed next to Skywalker. "I think you can't comprehend it." 

"You aren't freaking out."

"I'm older than you."

"How do you think they did it?" Luke mimed a planet exploding.

"They probably just carpet bombed it. There isn't a weapon that can destroy an entire planet. It just sounds more intimidating to phrase it that way."

"Right."

Boba rested his hand on Skywalker's shoulder for a second, then stood up. Skywalker caught his hand and squeezed his gloved fingers.

"Ah, thanks." Luke looked up at him, smiling wanly. His eyes looked more blue than usual. His face was a little drawn, a little tired. He had some color back in his cheeks.

"Sure." Boba took too long to say. He left the room and returned to the cockpit. He programmed the navconsole to chart them a course to Taris and a relatively simple bounty—pick up a datachit and bring it to a gas mine on Yavin. The computer alerted him that Bossk was trying to call him through his comm station, but he ignored it. His next three bounties were on Alderaan—Bossk probably thought he'd been killed.

Near death didn't feel like this—Boba'd had much closer encounters with his own mortality and this was different, akin to a natural disaster. On Kamino, there was an earthquake that sank Tipoca's sister city to the south. Dad was a little shaken by it, but he brushed it off quickly. Boba was barely aware of what happened.

Every single person on Alderaan died and didn't know it.

Boba sat down and tried not to think about the way Skywalker's eyes had looked.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey the plot's starting.
> 
> Harpo, you might ask, why didn't Luke know when Alderaan was destroyed as opposed to a few days after. Answer: he didn't know in ANH either. I figure it's something like a delayed reaction.
> 
> Thanks for reading; please leave a comment and kudos if you liked it!


End file.
